Moby Dick Bookmarks...

Here is a link to some terrific Moby Dick bookmarks created by Pietari Posti
a Finnish illustrator, graphic designer and artist who lives in Barcelona, Spain.

1992 Penguin Classics Definitive Text Moby Dick

Here is a fat paperback, obtained thru the good graces of the Lark Street Bookshop, now defunct.

What should be pointed out is the cover art. It is taken from the Garneray "Peche du Cachalot" located at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford Massachusetts, just a stones throw from TMDC's editor's childhood boarding school, to which he was exiled by his parents where they hoped he would be molded into something other than what he was molded into.

Speaking of High Schools, the cover art is identical to the cover art on the 1980 Signet Classic already blogged about.

Recently, at the store, music playing thru Pandora, we heard Que Sera, Sera by Doris Day. Someone mentioned that every time they heard that song, they thought of the late 80's classic movie Heathers. So being in a melancholy reflective mood and a complete Winona Ryder fan (the shop lifting thing only adds flame to our fire), we Netflixed it and watched it. To our astonishment, Moby-Dick makes a supporting role as Heather Dukes' highschool text of choice, and the edition, 1980 Signet Classic with the Garneray "Peche du Cachalot" on the cover is one of that Heather's prominant accessories.

Great pate, mom, but I gotta motor...

Collection Update

An additional Chinese edition is on the way from China to the collection and will be arriving in several weeks, also, several other editions are being negotiated and hopefully will be successfully purchased.

There are still several hundred other books to blog about. So a lot is going on.

Also, I am in the process of putting together a show of my artwork, Bill Pettit. com, and will post here when the show opening will be. The gallery, The Wayout Gallery,  is in the small upstate town of Rennselaerville, NY.

Most of my paintings are of upstate New York, with a small smattering of Cape Cod.

1975 Enriched Classic Pocket Edition Moby Dick

The cover art is almost the only thing that warrants mention about this edition.

Its abridged, and "enriched" by the addition of some supplemental material in the middle of the book.  Some of it is moderately interesting.

But the cover art? A left pegged Ahab  screaming with harpoon in hand.  What is he waiting for? Why is he facing the viewer when Moby Dick clearly is behind him and going down .   I want to scream "turn around you freak!"

The book is abridged and goofy which is not a formula for success.

1975? I was out of college 3 years, working in manufacturing for my father, married and living in our first home.

Nelson Rockefeller was vice president, and if I had the ability to choose how and when and who I could be, I would choose to be Nelson Rockefeller.....

1988 The Northwestern-Newberry Edition MOBY DICK

This is the collection's Northwestern Newberry Edition of Moby Dick.

In Moby Dick circles this is the accepted text for the novel. The editors, Hayford, Parker and Tanselle, aimed at presenting the text as near as Melville's intention as the "evidence permits."

I purchased this book new in 1988, and long before the nugget of The Moby-Dick Collection was found.

Whenever I look at this book I remember 1988 as a watershed year in my life. The year I lay about the pool reading Jude the Obscure, already noted. The year I bought my first business and the unfortunate year of my separation and ultimate divorce from the mother of our children.

Perhaps, in buying this book, I knew I was beginning a quest of sorts myself.

This book reminds me too that 1988 was the year I declared my love to the second of the three great female loves of my life. She left my life in 1991 and I never have spoken or acknowledged her since, except to a very very small number of intimate friends to whom I have detailed her importance in my life.  It is only recently that I have begun to talk openly about my love of her with people who knew her. People who are not intimate friends of mine, but friends non the less.

Such is the journey of peoples lives: complex, wonderful and ever changing. Some call it baggage, I think it is fascinating.

This blog was meant to be a catalogue of books, aimed at highlighting the importance of the printed bound volume in contrast to the temporary fleeting electronic media.  However, I feel that when a book has a personal connection and meaning, I need to divulge that as well. In cataloguing these books as not only objects but objects with meanings and memories the purpose of the blog achieved.